Tuesday - the first day of the week for me. Kind of nice working only 4 days a week, except that I miss the extra money. Thank God I still have complete benefits. I really like this job and hope I can hang in there for awhile.

BTW, I bought a boat over the weekend. It's an older one (circa 1970's), but it has been well taken care of. The model is a Glastron Aqua-Lift and it is powered by a 65 horse Johnson outboard. I haven't picked it up yet - no title yet, but already my daughter-in-law has made plenty of plans. She's an avid fisherman and can't wait to get out on the water. I bought several life-jackets and the mandatory floating cushion. I already checked into getting a tune-up and found out that I might need a myriad of tasks performed on the boat before it is lake-worthy. Is it gonna bust me or will the fun we have make it all worth it? Time will tell, I guess.

On another tangent, I bought probably the best grapes that I have ever had in my life! I am really getting to be a real grape connoisseur. Here are my tips for picking a good bunch of grapes.
The grape should be firm to the touch
If red then the color should not be dark red (too old)
The stems should still be green and the grapes should be kind of hard to pull off
I personally taste a grape (the store generally won't mind)
The skin should be thin and fragile (we don't want tough skins)
The grape should pop when you bite down and be sweet and juicy

This may not suit everyone, but it is the criteria that I go by and I eat grapes nearly every day.

Bob Cox is off to Florida on vacation this week, so Jerry Hankins and I will be going to lunch this week. Today we are going to the Parke Ave. Diner. They have the best hamburgers in town. They get their meat fresh from Foxes meat market. It is served on a really fresh bun and my preference is pickle, onion and mustard. Maybe tomorrow we can eat Chinese. We don't get this often since Bob doesn't do Chinese (gotta keep everyone happy, ya know).

At work - Still trying to unravel the mysteries of an secure VSFTPD. Anyone out there that can help me? I sure would like to get this thing working. I really need to find an RPM version that includes SSL.

Well, in the words of Porky -

That's all folks!

P.S. enjoy the music.

Man, what a session at Dialysis last night! First I end up getting infiltrated (needle stuck thru my graft into the muscle - ouch!). Then I have to get stuck twice again! Finally, I get on and get it over with. Usually the sessions aren't too bad, but occasionally they really suck. Oh, did I mention that my blood pressure also dropped so low that I nearly passed out? Just one of the many things that can happen on Dialysis. Guess I shouldn't complain too much - after all, it is keeping me alive.

I am writing this doc. on an online word processor named Buzzword. It is the best one I have tried so far. It is very simplistic. I guess I don't really need all the bells and whistles most of the time anyway. It would also make a great collaboration tool as well since sharing is available.


I have to get to the movies soon and see Ironman. I used to buy the comics years ago (and I'm talkin' years ago (40+)). I have really grown to like almost all of the movies that have been based on comic book heroes thus far. Spiderman is probably my favorite. I have enjoyed them all though, including X-Men, Fantastic Four, Batman, and Daredevil. The Hulk might have been OK, except the animation looked funky.

Been working on secure FTP lately. I have been trying to set up a secure server on a Linux box, but so far haven't had much luck. I get VSFTPD installed, but evidently I am not getting it installed with libssl. Anyone out there - I sure could use some help. I am mainly a mainframe guy, but also dabble in the windows and linux environments as well.

So how do you like the new look of the site? Pretty cool - huh? I added the music from a site that I had a playlist set up on - Project Playlist . Try it some time, I think you'll really like it.

Is everyone else as fed up with the Democratic Primary fight as I am! I am afraid that the Democratic party is going to be split and that a Republican will be elected once again and I don't think our country can survive another 4 years of Republican rule - at least not the economy anyway, although I must admit that they have been giving a lot of business to arms makers!

It's an interesting time now, what with potentially the first woman or the first black president. Too bad they won't run together because that would be a particularly devastating blow to the Republicans. I like what Obama has to say, but I am unsure if he can pull it off. I don't know if he has the ties and experience to be able to pull the parties together on the big issues. On the other hand, it seems like there are a lot of people that simply don't like Hillary and I am not sure she could be strong enough to be able to make some of the tough decisions she would be called upon to make.

I used to like John McCain back several years ago, before he began backing GW. Now it seems like he is nearly a rubber stamp of him (GW). Lately he has been coming up in the polls against Hillary and Barack, however I don't have a lot of faith in the polls sometimes. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

It's a very exciting time to be a Hoosier. The primary fights have placed Indiana in a very new light and we might just cast the deciding vote in the Democratic primaries.

Well it's time to end on that note. Perhaps next time will be more interesting.

This post comes way too late, I know, but better late than never. A lot has happened since I last blogged! If you were following my blogs, you know that I did lose my job. Well, since then (actually about 3-4 weeks later), Columbia House called and wanted me to come back - imagine that! After some haggling over salary and benefits, I finally agreed.

The job that I took had a few cons to it: I would have to work 4-12; I would be working in a production environment (JCL technician); I would be only part-time (4 days a week). So be it! Even though I was just about getting used to retirement, I think that I made the right decision in returning to work. Just getting my hands back into that mainframe once again was great.

That job lasted until January 2008 and then I was asked to move to Day shift and basically do much of the same job that I ws doing when I was asked to leave back in April 2007. I am now moved back into the same cubicle I left before and am busy writing programs and providing tech support for the production area as well as the programming staff.

Even though this will not mean much to most, I just finished writing an ISPF / Rexx interface to an FTP build process. I am also working on resolving the myriad of FTP problems here at good old CH. To that end, I have been capturing SMF data and releasing a "failed FTP report". I just finished making some recommendations to improve FTP and already have begun implementation of some of these ideas. I really enjoy resolving problems and helping people out and hope that I can continue to do this until I decide to retire.

I am meeting Brad at Becky's for lunch today. In case you haven't heard of it, Becky's is a real working class joint. Her homemade cream pies are probably the best you can buy (though still not as good as Susan's or her family's). I have a whole bunch of old office supplies to give Brad from accounting control (another victim of downsizing).

Soon I will be starting week 3 of joblessness. At first it seemed like a vacation (although I can't remember the last time I took 2 weeks off consecutively), but now I am beginning to despair. It's not like we're going to starve or something, but I guess it's just that great unknown of not knowing what will come next. Anyway, I am working with a job consultant now so maybe things will begin to look brighter soon. Thank God I have Susan! She is my biggest fan and all around greatest gal in the world!

On a different tangent - I began a Tai Chi course a couple of weeks ago. So far it's been very interesting and fun. I say interesting because our instructor fills us in on the culture behind the beginnings of Tai Chi. This course is geared toward people my age who have begun to slow down somewhat so it's very low geared and low impact. To my surprise, my 2nd cousin Linda Kay Sturtevant showed up the first day. We hadn't seen each other for so long that we hardly knew each other at first! Sadly, Linda only made the first class - I haven't seen her show up since. Too bad, I would have enjoyed reminiscing some more with her.

Easter was a happy time this year. As usual, everyone got together at Susan's Mom's house (the only living one of that generation) and we had a big old ham and plenty of trimmings. Danny and his new wife, Donnie came as well. We all stuffed ourselves and then divided everything else up to take home to eat another day.

I just finished installing a hard drive in a laptop for a friend. First one I installed in a laptop. It was a real piece of cake = no problems at all. The hard drive was covered under warranty and they (Dell) even sent him a larger one (100GB vs 80 before). It really surprised me how smoothly everything went. I had thought briefly of starting a home based PC repair, but just couldn't bring myself to do it because I don't feel I know enough about PC's, having worked most of my life on a mainframe. My friend told me that I was being foolish. He said I knew enough to please plenty of people just like him. Who knows, maybe I might start doing that on the side.

Enough for now, TV awaits and I can't miss CSI tonight. Later!

For those in the family that don't already know it - I am now officially out of a job. The decision was made about 2 weeks ago to downsize my department and I was included in that decision. I took it pretty hard. I have never been out of a job since I began working at the age of fifteen.

I do realize that it is somewhat unusual (especially nowadays) to work somewhere for a long period, 37 years in my case, but still you just somehow hope that your number is not up yet and that you will be allowed to hold on until you reach retirement age. I am only 56 and was not quite ready to retire yet, despite my somewhat uncertain health condition. However I have been feeling fine and was more than able to continue working, so it really came as a blow to me. It was even more so because I really did enjoy my job! I was in a support role and really enjoyed resolving problems and helping people.

I did receive a pretty generous severance package, so I do have some time to think things over. More importantly, I was able to retain my health insurance and Susan's too.

So - what am I going to be doing now? Probably nothing for awhile and then who knows? Maybe I will luck out and find a local job or maybe I will start my own consulting business or PC repair. Any of these are possible. I could also retire and that thought has really crossed my mind lately, but I just don't feel quite ready for this - maybe in a few years.

That said, don't worry too much about me. I have a great support group here and I am sure things will work themselves out. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot - I had signed up for a Tai Chi class sometime before being let go and am having an interesting time with it. The class is composed of mostly middle to older aged people and is really helping me to improve on my balance and flexibility. There is an advanced class as well and I may even sign up for that later on. I would greatly encourage anyone to try this. You will be surprised how out of touch with your body you really are.

Call me or come visit sometime. 812-232-6099 / jeff.ream@gmail.com.

Take care everyone!

This is kind of late to be posted but....
Well, once again we made it through Christmas. The usual Christmas Eve celebration at Ruthann's with baked ham, and various relishes as well as shrimp, marinated mushrooms and sweets galore! It was indeed another wonderful Christmas Eve. I did most of my shopping over the internet this year and was very satisfied with the results. I was especially happy with the black onyx ring that I got Susan. It came through a jeweler that I found on the internet through Ebay Express. The name of the jeweler was Anzor and the person I spoke with was a real good guy. When I thought that I might not receive the item on time, he immediately sent me a tracking number and told me to call back if I did not receive it that day. Nice to find a merchant with that level of customer care.
Susan and I usually compete each year to outdo each other in the amount of presents. Most of the time I win, but this year was an exception. In addition to the many little gadgets and clothes that I received, I also received a new 19" flat monitor and a new desk chair that even has a builtin massager! What a woman! All that and she can cook too. What more could a man want!

More to come!